Matteo Campagna
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Imagery training shortens an archer's visual reaction time

1 study · 36 archers measured

There is a single study, and it needs reading with care. Thirty-six Turkish novice archers aged 14 to 18 were split into three groups of twelve: for eight weeks, twice a week, one group added fifteen minutes of guided imagery of the shot sequence to its training, one added fifteen minutes of alternate-nostril breathing, and the third simply trained. Visual reaction time, measured with an online test as the mean of five trials, shortens in all three groups, the control included, but with imagery it falls by 71 milliseconds against 50 with breathing, and the imagery group is the only one that pulls away from the control (p < 0.001; breathing against control p = 0.060). Three things hold the result back: the groups were formed in sequence rather than by lot, even though the study's flow chart speaks of randomisation; an effect of almost four standard deviations in twelve teenagers is larger than a quarter of an hour of imagery twice a week would lead anyone to expect; and nobody checked whether reacting faster to a stimulus on a screen changes anything on the target.

Also phrased as: "imagery and reaction time"; "mental imagery and reflexes"; "visualisation and reaction speed"; "imagery training for novice archers"

In practice

It is sometimes said that rehearsing the shot in the mind also sharpens the reflexes, and that archers who do it regularly become quicker to react to what they see while aiming.

Evidence

  • 2025
    For Archers Published later

    36 novice archers aged 14 to 18, three groups of 12 formed in sequence, eight weeks with two sessions a week: an extra fifteen minutes of guided imagery of the twelve phases of the shot, fifteen of alternate-nostril breathing, or training alone. Visual reaction time (online test, mean of five trials) falls by 71.4 ms with imagery (t = 13.16, d = 3.80, p < 0.001) and by 49.7 ms with breathing (t = 7.66, d = 2.21, p < 0.001), but it also drops in the control group (p = 0.002). Across groups Kruskal-Wallis 15.48, p < 0.001: imagery against control p < 0.001, breathing against control p = 0.060, imagery against breathing p = 0.032.

    Effects of breathing and imagery exercises on postural sway and shooting performance in Olympic archers · Cansu Keskin, Ayşe Nur Tunali Van Den Berg

Status history

  1. 1990 Not studied No one in the registry's bibliography had yet measured archers' reaction times before and after an imagery programme: the question had no answers, either for or against.
  2. 2025 Reported The first and only data arrive. Thirty-six novice archers aged 14 to 18, three groups of twelve formed in sequence rather than by lot: imagery, breathing and training alone, for eight weeks. Visual reaction time falls in all three, by 71 milliseconds with imagery and by 50 with breathing, but only imagery pulls away from the control (p < 0.001; breathing against control p = 0.060) and it also beats breathing (p = 0.032). A single supporting study, in novices, with groups not formed by lot and a measure that is not the shot itself: reported.

Related

Research lines

Cite
APA

Campagna, M. (2026). Imagery training shortens an archer's visual reaction time (Version 1). In Evidence Registry. Retrieved 16 October 2026, from https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/mind/imagery-visual-reaction-time

BibTeX
@misc{campagna2026_visualizzazionetempireazione,
  author = {Campagna, Matteo},
  title = {Imagery training shortens an archer's visual reaction time},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Evidence Registry, matteocampagna.com},
  url = {https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/mind/imagery-visual-reaction-time},
  note = {Version 1; accessed 2026-10-16}
}

Other claims in this domain

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